Adding XP clients to 2003 domain while keeping their settings

From: DenoxiS (google_at_deniznet.com)
Date: 06/03/04 

Date: 3 Jun 2004 11:23:22 -0700

Hi,

There is this network with 10+ XP Pro clients working under one
workgroup. What I want to do is, I want to join them into a domain and
retain their settings (desktop, Outlook, etc.)

I did a clean install of Windows 2003 Enterprise on a Intel box. I
opened few accounts to test, and I'm able to join and logon to the
domain from the client.

To copy the local client settings I have tried two things:

1) File & Settings Transfer Wizard
  I logged in to local (not to domain) before I started this wizard. I
chose Setting Only, plus My Documents folder. Then I logged off and
logged into W2k3 domain. I ran the wizard again. I don't know why but
it didn't work. Desktop and appearance were totally off. Outlook had
the accounts, but not the messages or the passwords.

2) "Copy To" button under profiles
  This one worked before for local to local. Now I tried the same, I
logged in as local\user2, I copied local\user1 to user1.domain folder.
When I logged in as domain\user1, I saw the correct desktop icons but
other settings (background etc.) didn't make it. Also Outlook couldn't
even start. (I believe it's because copying profile doesn't copy the
files itself but the references instead, which is unreachable from the
new account?)

I need your ideas at this point. How to switch a client to domain
environment while keeping its settings?

Thanks in advance,

Deniz